Looking
around my office this morning, I saw a painting of the immaculate heart, a
small statue of the Blessed Virgin I found in Madagascar, a cross stitch of the
Blessed Mother holding the Christ child my mother gave me on the occasion of my
ordination, an icon of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, I had commissioned, a stained
glass window of the crucifixion with Mary standing at the foot of Jesus, and an
image of Our Lady of Czestochowa I rescued from a garage sale. Some might
think this excessive.
St. Bernard, the eloquent
doctor of the Church, who is
remembered for his great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary once wrote: “De
Maria, numquam satis”, “Concerning Mary, never enough.”
When we
love Mary, it helps us to love God. So we can never love Mary enough. When we
seek Mary’s intercession, we are seeking help from the woman God chose to bear
his only Son. So we can never seek her intercession enough. When we honor her,
we show honor to her Creator, who made her Immaculate. So we can never honor
her enough. Mary reflects the light of God like a perfect Mirror, she is called
Mirror of Justice. Peering into her face, we see God’s love for us reflected,
and magnified. So, we can never say enough about her, because we can never say
enough about God.
St. Louie
Marie de Montfort wrote, “We have not yet praised, exalted, honored, loved and
served Mary as we ought. She deserves still more praise, still more respect,
still more love, and still more service.”
On this
Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, what can we say about Mary? Well,
our Scripture readings seem to have something to say.
Our first
reading, from Revelation, speaks of struggle, a struggle that goes back to the
beginning of human history. The struggle between the woman and the dragon, the
enmity between the powers of good and evil. All of the disciples of Jesus
Christ are engaged in this struggle. We face temptation and attack from the
perennial enemy of God. But in this struggle, scripture shows us, we are not
alone. The Mother of Christ is always with us. Assumed into heaven, she is able
to be with all of us always; accompanying us, sustaining us in our fight
against the forces of evil. And we do well to turn to her constantly, in our
devotional prayers, for help; she is the auxilium christianorum, the help of
all Christians.
Our
second reading spoke of victory. Mary’s assumption, and the defeat of God’s
enemy, was only possible through the victory of Christ. We are able to
experience the fruits of that victory in our life, the life of grace. The
powers of death, sin, temptation, though they bombard us in this life, do not
get the final say. Assumed into heaven, Mary shows us the power of Christ’s
victory at work. Body and soul, we too, will experience this victory ultimately
in the resurrection.
Finally,
our Gospel speaks of our vocation. Mary magnified the Lord in a life of faith,
hope, and love. Pope Benedict wrote in his first encyclical, “Mary’s greatness
consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself. She is lowly:
Her only desire is to be the handmaid of the Lord (Lk 1:38, 48). She knows that
she will only contribute to the salvation of the world if, rather than carrying
out her own projects, she places herself completely at the disposal of God’s
initiatives.” Assumed into heaven, Mary reminds us of the life each one
of us are called to live, by following her Son in all things, we are to magnify
the Lord in in all of our activities, choices, attitudes, pursuits. By
following her humility, her faith, her trust in God, we can come to love God
and neighbor as we should.
May we
know her help in our struggles, may she teach us to love more deeply, and may
she increase our hope for a future with God in eternity, for the glory of God
and salvation of souls.
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